How do you perceive your thoughts?

[Amaris]

Vocal. I do a lot of talking!

Another thing about myself that I found was unusual (after telling other people about it) is that I almost always have music running through my head. The only time this is not the case is when I'm focused on doing something important, such as teaching a lesson.

I know how you feel about the music in your head. Sometimes I realize that I have been breathing the chorus. Not singing, but actually breathing it as if I were. This would explain my occasional dizzy spells.

J.

Do either of you wake up in the morning with a song already playing in your heads? I do. And sometimes I will wake up and will find myself actually singing out loud before I am even really awake. I always will think to myself "is that the radio" before I am cognitive enough to realize it is coming from me.

I do, yes.
The worst one was one morning when I hadn't had enough sleep, and "Bark at the Moon" started playing in my head.
That day sucked all day long.

J.

 

[Wrongway Janeway]

Do either of you wake up in the morning with a song already playing in your heads?

Absolutely!

And when I read the paper in the morning, I'll sometimes start singing a song and wonder why...and then I'll see a line or even just a word in an article that was I reading which caused me to think of that particular song. Weird. I know.

 

[TrekNut87]

For the most part, spoken words, but images come soon after.

 

[Cicero]

My thoughts are always a combination of images and sound.

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

I have to say, I'm really confused by how people can think without words! I mean, I know the words eventually come, but to me, I can't fathom a wordless thought: at least, a thought is not fully real to me until I see the appropriate words in my mind...it's a nebulous thing without a real form or shape, sometimes.

 

[RoJoHen]

I have to say, I'm really confused by how people can think without words! I mean, I know the words eventually come, but to me, I can't fathom a wordless thought: at least, a thought is not fully real to me until I see the appropriate words in my mind...it's a nebulous thing without a real form or shape, sometimes.

I'm not entirely sure how to define "thought," which I think is why I'm having a hard time answering this question.

 

[Finn]

Hello. It's hard to describe, I guess. It's a jumble, I guess, of images, texts, signing (I usually don't see the signs, just the act of it), and mouthing words as well.

 

[Daneel]

It's an interesting question... and a tough call. I'd say my thoughts are usually some combination of images and spoken words, but figuring out which is dominant is tricky.

Eh... since I spend a fair amount of time thinking about sex, I'll use those thoughts as the tie-breaker. Images it is.

 

[Tom Riley]

Whenever I think it starts as spoken word in my head. My personal thoughts are in spoken words, usually my voice, but sometimes it can switch to other (real) people's voices, although I get other voices that don't belong to any real person or anyone in particular that say other thoughts that I suppose I would say don't come from "me" or weren't "my" thoughts. I can get images if I am thinking about something that is an actual object, place, or event. I daydream a lot and that is in images and sounds, but not a narration or description, it is the actual sounds from the images of whatever is going on. I also have music going through my head most of the time, unless I am in the middle of daydreaming, or actively thinking and focusing on something else

 

[cyph]

Like most people have polled, spoken words. But then the words turn into text, and the text turn into images, like a typographic illustration... like...

 

[WillsBabe]

I voted "other" but I'm not able to say what they are. They're aren't really words and they aren't really images. I think they are more like feelings with a little bit of a voice over ...

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

I would definitely say words, but I am having a hard time choosing between text and spoken. I definitely think of thoughts as words and hear them spoken in my head, but somehow that always come across to me more as like someone reading them someone speaking. Then again if I actually saw my thoughts as text would that imply images because I was seeing the text? Oh hell I am just going to choose.

 

[jamestyler]

Do either of you wake up in the morning with a song already playing in your heads?

Absolutely!

And when I read the paper in the morning, I'll sometimes start singing a song and wonder why...and then I'll see a line or even just a word in an article that was I reading which caused me to think of that particular song. Weird. I know.

I get that all the time... I tend to have an internal soundtrack which can only annoy my GF as I tend to sing it aloud when I forget everyones saner than me.

Lately I've been getting All Along the Watchtower stuck in my head. Which leads me to believe I'm a Cylon.

I'm not entirely sure how to define "thought," which I think is why I'm having a hard time answering this question.

Thats what I've been thinking reading this. My thoughts are a jumble, going faster than I can speak, write or communicate. Which has caused problems in the past leading me tom leave team efforts to go into my own little world.

The only time it comes in words or images is when I'm thinking of something in particular. Or trying to solve a problem etc. If I'm concentrating I'll talk to myself in my head, which I see written in text and feel like a mad man, but the rest of the time it's just stuff racing round faster than I can imagine myself communicating aloud.

 

[RJDiogenes]

I'd have to say Multimedia. There's always a voiceover of thoughts, but it's sort of an animated pattern of words that goes backwards and forwards as it evolves into the best way to phrase whatever I'm thinking; this is true whether I'm just thinking something through or writing a story or poem. There are always images though as well, memories or imaginings, and these are always integrated with the words in some way; if I'm writing, the integration is close, but if I'm just thinking randomly, it can be very free associated with no obvious connection. There's also sort of a shifting kaleidoscope of patterns there that connects things, so there are always trails and linkages, which can be images or sounds or smells or pretty much anything, including abstract concepts that can't be described. For example, when I think about my life, there's sort of a ribbon going back through space and it varies in color and texture and density according to time periods, with certain demarcations that divide what I consider specific eras, and the individual particles of the ribbon are objects or people or concepts or feelings or pretty much anything; that's as close as I can get to describing it, but it doesn't quite communicate how it is.

It's pretty busy in here.

 

[Emher]

Okay get this, when I'm not hearing any music, it's mostly words. But when like right now I'm listening to some music on the computer it's hard to maintain the words, and images appear instead.

Otherwise I'd mostly say it's words, and for some reason I think more in English then I do in Swedish. But images and sounds are there as well. Not so much text.

 

[Jadzia]

While I do like to form mental images to develop my thoughts, I think in something more fundamental, what I call "brain language". I expect most people do think this way too, just that it's not immediately obvious if one's attention rests with images or sounds or words, you may be unaware that there is a deeper process which is responsible for manipulating those images and sounds and words.

I'll describe this brain language as an awareness of abstract relations pertinent to what I'm thinking about, and my thoughts occur by exploring and manipulating these relations. My intuition is honed to thoughts of this nature; intuition is my dominant mental faculty.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Another thing about myself that I found was unusual (after telling other people about it) is that I almost always have music running through my head. The only time this is not the case is when I'm focused on doing something important, such as teaching a lesson.

I'm the same.

My thoughts are a combination of images, sensations, words, music and simple...understandings. I can't really articulate it but much of what I think defies words. Whether it's because I lack the vocabulary or simply because words don't exist for the understandings that form in my mind, I often find transcribing my thoughts to words difficult. Also, there is a lot of emotion in my thinking. I tend to think in feeling. My mind is always very busy, particularly with the constant music, although I have a theory about that. I have heightened senses, so my sensory input is very high and very detailed, including lots of forms of energy I'm aware of that other people seem not to be. I think the music plays to distract me from some of that input lest I become overwhelmed (my mind does have a tendency to try to focus on everything). it's also worth noting that I have a strong sense of my mind as a fluid "field" of energy. When I feel well, it extends beyond my body and I can direct energy through it or "move" my mind as I direct. I can even use it to probe energy fields. When I'm tired, depressed or unwell my mind retreats into my physical body, and since my heightened senses mean my nervous system is very alert, it can be highly uncomfortable. My body and mind sense each other continuously, and jostle for space...I hope that makes sense, though I fear I simply sound very weird.

To get back to the question, my thinking is very varied in form, although often understandings and intuitions will then be converted into words as I play conversations through in my head to prepare my thinking for expression.

 

[RandyS]

Sometimes when I am thinking about something, I could swear I hear my mom talking to me. That didn't happen before she died.

 

[Zulu Romeo]

How do you perceive your thoughts?

Very well, thank you.


But seriously, when a single thought comes into my head, it starts off as a statement, a word or several words. These thoughts often then manifest as silent voices in my head, often as if I'm rehearsing those things over and over again in my mind. [We all know you're mad, really. But we love you anyway. - everyone]

Sometimes these thoughts are numerous enough or of significant substance to reach critical mass in the form of a memory - and these memories seem to appear in the form of a picture or, rarely, a sound in my head - not necessarily of real world objects I can see with my eyes which may or may not be associated with those thoughts and words, but often an abstract shape which I associate with that particular thought. Remembering that abstract shapeless shape in my mind helps me define that particular thought or sensation with startling clarity.

 

[backstept]

images words and sounds . . .